Transcript of "The Flea Market Website Dilemma"

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Who we are. Eat Media is a NY based Content Agency focused on the full life-cycle of content. From strategy to development to upload, our content expertise spans digital and print. Britta Alexander is a professional editor and writer who has worked with bestselling authors as a literary agent and some of the world's largest brands as an agency copywriter. Ian Alexander speaks many practices: Content Strategist/IA/Techie/Editor. He is a regular on the content strategy circuit and a sought-after speaker.

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I realize we're only going to spend about 15-minutes together. And while I can't solve all your content problems in that timeframe, I'd like to tell you about Flea Market Websites and how Eat Media can clean them up.

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Isn't that why users are here? But at weather.com users are forced to find and then deconstruct this confusing search/navigation. Disney World? Photos of what?

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The primary focus of weather.com should be the user's local weather. Design, IA, UX and content should all be working in harmony to present that experience. But that's not happenin'. Show me my weather!

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Instead the user is forced to forage through tertiary information. Local weather = relevant, focused, targeted content. Not a link for a Wedding Planner.

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&quot; You don't share every detail about your life during an introduction, do you? Well then...tell me why the majority of companies' website homepages are cluttered with text and information that doesn't matter. &quot; Eric Karjaluoto Speak Human Owner of SmashLab

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1. Content Look at what you have. Qualify it. Quantify it. Perform your content inventory first. Your current content, microcopy, email, error messages and web copy are critical to understanding where you are and why. Understand where you are to get where you want to be.

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2. Strategy Review content against business objectives. What was the motivation for creating a new website? Rebrand, technology change, underperformance? Is this website strategy a global strategy that spans across all digital and print assets, or a one-off? Why?

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3. Design Add visual elements. Don't half ass it. If Gore Vidal authors your content and it looks like crap, no one will read it. Design opens the door but content sits users at the table. UX/design and Content Strategy are not &quot;either or&quot; choices. They must be performed in concert.

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Really, always. &quot;...Some designers rush to figure out their grid, then maybe their color scheme, then perhaps the logo, without first considering the content the site is intended to convey.&quot; Jeffrey Zeldman Designing with Web Standards &quot;All too often we sacrifice usability and accessibility for a sexy look and feel.&quot; Morville and Callendar Search Patterns

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Content Strategy is not another line item. A content strategist is not just another vendor to manage.

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Content Strategy is not another line item. A content strategist is not just another vendor to manage. A good content strategy should cut across all departments and reduce the workload of internal resources as well as other vendors.

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Content Strategy is not another line item. A content strategist is not just another vendor to manage. A good content strategist should build bridges between all the practices.

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The content strategist should not be a consultant who drops a report on your desk and sails into the ether.

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The content strategist should not be a consultant who drops a report on your desk and sails into the ether. A good content strategist is both macro and micro whose job ends when the #'s go up.

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The content strategist should not be a consultant who drops a report on your desk and sails into the ether. A good content strategist should be the first one in and the last one out.

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A Content Strategist needs to be part tour guide, part sprinter. The tour guide needs to understand and then engage the user with relevant content. The sprinter needs to rush ahead find out what users want to see before they go look at something else.

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Content Strategy needs to speak many languages and play well with others. Design IA/UX IT Management Marketing/Branding SEO

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Content Strategy needs to speak many languages and play well with others. Design IA/UX IT Management Marketing/Branding SEO &quot;We need blueprints that show the complex relationships between form, function, structure, process and goal.&quot; Peter Morville